And when something big and bad does
happen, these people will be surprised.
What will they say if savings accounts
or pensions are confiscated (Hungary,
Argentina, Cyprus)? If door-to-door
gun seizures occur (England, Australia)?
If dissent camps aren’t rumors after all
(Cambodia, China, Russia)? Where did
this come from?

“Denial is an integral part of atrocity,”
wrote the late Iris Chang, “and it’s a
natural part after a society has committed
genocide. First you kill, and then the
memory of killing is killed.”
It was Ayn Rand who said at an “Ethics
in Our Time” symposium in 1961, “Man
is free to choose not to be conscious, but
not free to escape the penalty of unconsciousness: destruction.”
Those of us who have become preppers
in the last few years—and believe me,
there are millions more now than there
were five years go—are doing so because
we recognize potential problems on the
horizon, and we know ignoring them
won’t make them go away. These potential problems can range from economic
collapse to a massive solar flare taking
down the power grid. Others worry
about peak oil*** or terrorist attacks.
Preppers come from all walks of life and
embrace enormous numbers of concerns, but we all have one thing in common: we are not ignoring these problems
in hopes they’ll go away. Instead we are
trying to recognize what the potential
ramifications might be, and prepare
accordingly.

Ignoring (which, remember, shares the
same root as ignorance) a problem never
makes it go away (duh). The problem
persists and/or gets worse, whether we
ignore it or not. As responsible individuals, it’s up to us to do what we can to
make sure we and our families will be as
safe as possible when the problem comes
to a head.

Remember 1 Timothy 5:8: “Anyone whodoes not provide for their relatives, andespecially for their own household, hasdenied the faith and is worse than anunbeliever.”The fact is, very little happens thatdoesn’t give some sort of advancedwarning (with the possible exception ofcertain natural disasters such as earth-quakes). All it takes is vigilance and a de-termination not to depend wholly on themainstream media (which tends to filterworld and national events to support itsagenda) for our news.

Becoming a prepper means becoming
more vigilant about world and national
events, and projecting how those events
might have a personal impact on our
lives. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not suggesting we get bogged down with calamity to the point where we can’t function.
Rather, I’m suggesting that preppers can
live with much more calmness and peace
because they’ve prepared to the best
of their ability to withstand chaos and
disasters.

Ignorance can be described as sticking
your head in the sand, ostrich-like. But
you know what happens when your head
is in the sand: your rump is in the air,
exposed and vulnerable and waiting to be
kicked.

Only when your head is where it should
be and your vision is clear and focused
do you have the possibility of kicking
back at whatever fate brings your way.
Strip away your Normalcy Bias and
acknowledge that the smoke on the horizon means a fire is coming. Awareness, as
they say, is half the battle.

Ignorance never solved anything. Ignorance never caused problems to disappear. The only thing ignorance produces
is surprise when a calamity hits—rapidly
followed by dismay at how it affects us.

But action is the answer. Learn how tosafeguard your home and family; learnhow to safeguard your money; and learnhow to safeguard your soul. If trackingthe financial insecurity in Venezuela dis-turbs you, the solution is to take whatev-er steps are necessary to safeguard yourown financial situation. If the potentialfor urban unrest in your city disturbsyou, take steps to lessen your vulnerabil-ity. If your region is subject to hurricanesor other regular natural disasters, havingthe supplies on hand to withstand suchdisturbances will go a long way towardyour peace of mind.

It’s clear that those who lump any and all
preppers into the Tin Foil Hat Society
will never “get it.” For whatever their
reasons, they’ve chosen to be hostile to
anyone who likes to keep a full pantry
and some extra ammunition. I don’t
know what they expect they’ll do if a
natural disaster prevents anyone from
delivering groceries to their nearest
grocery store. It’s well documented how
incoming blizzards or hurricanes will
mean store shelves are stripped bare
within hours. But maybe they believe the
grocery fairies can work overtime under
such conditions and magically provide
them with food. And they accuse us of
wearing tin foil hats?

So don’t waste your time with these people. They’re clueless and in denial.

Meanwhile, you have work to do.
Become a Proverbs 31 woman who can
“laugh at the days to come” because her
household is prepared.

Patrice Lewis is a wife,mother, homesteader, ho-meschooler, author, blogger,columnist, and speaker. Anadvocate of simple living andself-sufficiency, she and her husband, Don,operate a home-based woodcraft businessand farm twenty acres in rural north Idaho.Patrice and her husband have been marriedtwenty-four years and have two daugh-ters, 16 and 20. Follow her blog at www.
rural-revolution.com.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat

** http://canadafreepress.com/article/intelligence-insid-er-obama-administration-agenda-to-kill-u.s-dollar
***Peak oil is the point at which global oil production
peaks and can only go down.